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The not-so-cool thing about this is it is not, well, 'LIVE' from wherever I was. But anyhow, this is the step-by-step journey I've taken...so hope you'll enjoy it a bit :) | Log entries 1 - 10 of 17 | Page:
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Apr 22, 2008 06:00 PM Leaving on a Jet Plane
Well, we end the day visiting the 'best of Jordan's mall' - sort of, for lunch...
And our guide-cum-driver just wanted to show off. I'll tell you this, if he ever made it to jakarta, our malls will knock his socks off. Anyway, that was a short visit. On to the airport, passed a pretty fast immigration process thanks to Jihad and after a short wait boarded the airplane (after loading up on Bounty).
And we had a long, save flight back to Jakarta, thank God and I'm just so totally heartbroken being back 'home'...*sigh*...Back to reality, baby!!
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Apr 21, 2008 06:00 PM The Other Dead Sea
Okey today's a day for my dad. The last time he visited Israel he didn't get to go to the Dead Sea, so today we took him to the Dead Sea on the Jordan side. So we went to this place called the Amman Beach, which is pretty decent public beach with a rather large pool and Dead Sea access without having to go to a hotel. Oh in the morning we did some more shopping in Downtown Jordan (near the Jabal Hussein area) and had lunch at this really nice Chinese Restaurant in First Circle. We did went out there a little later in the day because of the heat. The heat in Jordan can easily be overwhelming, so beaches are better enjoyed at 3pm onwards, in my opinion, where you can also enjoy a pretty terrific sunset. Anyway, we spend the entire afternoon there and with all due respect to the Jordanians, I still have to the say I liked the Israeli Dead Sea better. But the pool is entirely enjoyable and affordable. And even with all the the crowd (there's a bus full of Chinese and Holland tourists along with the local people) it's still a pretty spacious place. From there I think we went straight to the hotel and had dinner in the hotel, back to the room early to pack for the trip home tomorrow *hixx*
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Apr 20, 2008 06:00 PM The Amazing Petra
Today we went to Petra. I'm super excited because I had wanted to go there since I first saw 'Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade' (at first I thought it was a film set...*duh!!*) so anyway I'm really psyched and bought this gorgeous gorgeous book on Petra in advance (since we've got no guide). It's a pretty tedious drive from Amman, about 7-8hours back and forth. So we make 2 stops, the last one being a pretty good, small (tho' not cheap) restaurant just outside the Petra complex gate. I went with my mum+pops btw. Tickets to this site is quite pricey and to enjoy it ideally you should take the 3 day tour and possibly book a hotel near the site. The view was spectacular right way going into the Siq (which is basically a long alley made of stone like a mountain splitting in 2 - or as wikipedia puts it: a natural geological feature formed from a deep split in the sandstone rocks and serving as a waterway flowing into Wadi Musa - which is the town nearest to Petra). At the end of the Siq is the Treasury (Al-Khazneh) - which is featured in the said Indiana Jones movie above - which is amazing beyond words when you get to see it up close :) another 2km and we found the Urn tomb, the Monastery, and get an 'aerial' view of the theatre. The complex is 45km2 and all along the way you can see carvings of all sorts of rooms, buildings and the stone's itself is quite something since they diver naturally in colors, forming great intricate pattern and colors. A 1 day trip was simply not doing it justice. But anyway, it's a spectacular visit to a spectacular site, a city carved in stone. Truly a wonder of the world.
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Apr 19, 2008 06:00 PM Ruins After Ruins
After a pretty good night's sleep and great breakfast, we're off to Gerasa (=Jerash), which is not very far from Amman. We have a local guide-cum-driver, who's really a very nice guy named Tariq. And Jerash was quite amazing. The ruins was in really good condition and the restorations are still going on and everything is being put back together really amazingly. The Roman Theater is the best bit. The complex is quite large and it took the whole day to get it explored. The sites is dusty, and really hot but quite windy, but the view is nothing less of spectacular!! We also went and saw 'The Roman Army & Chariot Experience'...which was really fun and we got to take pictures with the cast...hahaha. From there we make a quick stop at the St.George church in Madaba. We went to Downtown Amman and on the way we stopped at the citadel up the hill overlooking the Roman theatre in Amman and getting an 'aerial view' of the city which was really awesome. We spent the evening weaving in an out of the Downtown, shopping at this great little souvenir shop where we had a pretty good bargain off everything :p
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Apr 18, 2008 06:00 PM Would You Just Leave Me Behind!!
And all good things must come to and end. This early morning we head for the Allenby Bridge, the border, to cross over to Jordan. That was a rather sad goodbye to Zaid & Phillip. Got to go anyway. And we head on out Mount Nebo, the Moses Memorial, to see where Moses was only shown the holy land from a far (I kinda know how he feels that day, darn). After that, we had lunch and we drove to the airport, where everybody else in the group heads back on the plane to Abu Dhabi-Jakarta. Me & mom stayed behind where we'd spend another 3 day in Jordan, joined by my dad, coming in from Dubai. We stayed at the Golden Tulip in Amman that night, and walked the a bit in the Jabal Hussein area to get some dinner - in Al Mankal chicken Tikka, which serves really good, cheap food - even with the waiter not understanding a single word we're saying. On the walk back, we stopped at the nuts and sweets shop, a la Jordan and bought water and sweets at a local shop, which sells all kinds of imported food, including the beloved Indonesian Pop Mie (which cost about 10 times more!!..hahaha). We turn in about 11 pm, getting ready for Jerash in the morning.
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Apr 17, 2008 06:00 PM Via Dolorosa
This is the highlight of the day, basically. Walking the Via Dolorosa. Which was, religiously moving and travel-ly fascinating. This is a walk through the old city, passing half way the Christian quarter and the other half the Moslem quarter. We started really early and that was a good call since it's a really popular trek for pilgrims. It was a nice, quiet walk ending up at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre which is build spread over the rock of Golgotha and Jesus' tomb and the 'Stone of Unction' on which Jesus was laid after they took Him down from the cross. From there we went to the Last Supper Room and King David's tomb. After lunch, we went to the Israel Museum for a really quick tour (but was not impressed by the so-called Qumran's scroll display).
We end the day visiting 'the other Calvary' - The Garden Tomb, which was a gorgeous, shady, cool place. A beautifully kept garden where we had the Holy Communion and a breather after a rushed-up day as usual. The downside of today is...it's the last day in the country!! :( And I tried not to think about it then, since oh, Jerusalem is one place is you'll just like to hang at way longer than 3 days :(
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Apr 16, 2008 06:00 PM Palm Thursday
The day's tour started with the Wailing Wall, which was a nice thing to do early in the morning, went to say a prayer there. They were having a mass bar mitzvah there, so the atmosphere was really festive, and when we were queing up to get in to the Al-Aqsa - Dome of the Rock courtyard there was this group playing Hebrew songs and some in my group was dancing, so that makes the quieng up less boring :). Took loads of pix in this gorgeous gorgeous site - and the sacred 'Golden Gate' of Jerusalem. We then continue on to see the Bethesda pools, then to the Garden of Gethsemane (where, really, you can't help but be moved), with it's rather spectacular church. After that to the Mt. of Olives (which was said to be the Israel's Pick-Pocket hangout..*chuckle*) to see the traditional place of Jesus's Ascencion (which is actually not at all accurate) and the church of Pater Noster (Our Father), where is actually a pretty nice afternoon hang-out spot. The tour that day was ended at the Dominus Flevit church in the Jewish cemetary. And that wraps up another productive day weaving in and out of the City of David.
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Apr 15, 2008 06:00 PM On the Way to the Holy City
And the morning was off to a good on-time start! On we went, to the Mt. Tabor (church). The ride up was interesting and the church was pretty cool and it offers seriously amazing view. The wind was a bit chilly back in April. A good place to start the day. Then we head off to Haifa, where we took a (too) quick look at the Bahai center and took loads of picture of gorgeous overview of the city from the top of the Bahai center and had lunch. The city is gorgeous with a Possitano feel to it. We moved on to the Carmelite Monastery, on the top of Mt. Carmel, in the area of Mukhraka - the church there was built to commemorate Elijah's triumph against the false prophets. Again, the view is breathtaking, eventhough it was a somewhat foggy afternoon. From there we continue on to head for Bethlehem, via the Caesarea Maritima which was of course spectacular. But we didn't get to spend time there at all...bummer :( In Bethlehem, we visited the Navitiy Church and the famous square, which was again, awesome and then in the early hour of evening, finally, Jerusalem! Say 'halelujah' ya' all!! :)
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Apr 14, 2008 06:00 PM One More Round
The 'Kfar Kana' is a very charming Arab village and in 7 in the morning it looked downright romantic. We visited the wedding church first and people are renewing their vows and getting teary eyed..hehehe. We then visited the home of the Holy Family in Nazareth, mama Miriam's house, traditional site of daddy Joseph's workshop - and again, i love the town, it's quite cozy with it's street market and all. Lunch was the famed Peter's fish (which we just had to have, according to our guide). We then head on to the Kfar Nahum (Capharnaum to you), where there's just ruins of what was the city Jesus 'hangs-out' at. Oh the synagogue is still quite preserve and is beautiful. We continue to the Church of the Multiplication & Church of the Primacy of Peter in Tabgha - the later is right at the shores of the Kinneret and the afternoon is awesome there. Next is Mount of Beatitudes, which is really scenic and just gorgeous and ended the day with the visit to the Jordan River baptism site (tho' the one Jesus was baptized in is actually on the Jordan site of the river..hehe). By the way, this side of the Jordan is quite a cozy hang-out spot ;)
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Apr 13, 2008 06:00 PM Ending up by the Sea
Woke up at 5am today, went for the morning service (and still was the last 1 to arrive!!). Was in the Dead Sea by 7am. Soaking the morning's timid sunlight and the ocean's blissful salt bath, compliments of mother nature. Heading back to the room after also experiencing the indoor spa. Had a hurried bfast and then headed out to Masada Fort. Toasted by the hot sun, but was impressed with the history and its significance to Israel's military past. After that on to Qumran, where they found the 'Dead Sea Scroll'. Moving on to Jericho, where we had lunch and did the 'compulsory' tourist shopping. From there we head on through to Tiberias, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where we end the day's tour by taking a boat ride, which was pretty nice, owing to the friendly wheather and really calm lake. From there we went to the Golden Tulip Tiberias, where we were to spend the night. After a stroll around the neighbourhood around the hotel, I decided to call it a night. A pretty good day, that day :)
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